Back to Lowes

It was crazy windy here yesterday and I made another discovery. I need weather stripping at exterior doors. There was no apparent air movement around my windows (thank goodness) but there was a steady stream of air coming in around the latch side of the front door. That's a pretty simple fix so I know at least one place I will be shopping on Saturday.

I have gotten so much mail since I moved into the house! Coupons, advertisements for everything I could possibly need for a house, refinance offers, etc. And the phone calls! I get calls every day from some mortgage company or the other that wants to help me lower my mortgage payments or from companies that want to sell me insurance to pay off my mortgage in the event that something catastrophic occurs to me. I just keep the answering machine on all the time and scan my calls. Guess I need to re-register on the "Do Not Call" list!

Baseboard heat

Now that it has gotten to the point where the smoke alarms don't go off every time the heat turns on downstairs, I have learned that I dislike baseboard electric heat for another reason.

Heat on the first floor (where it actually is cold) is rising up the stairwells and heating the rest of the house. Downstairs it continues to be chilly.

I can close the door to the studio so it would not go to the third floor but I am in a quandary as to how to keep some of the heat on the first floor. I HATE the look of ceiling fans but with a 12' ceiling, maybe it wouldn't be too bad if I had one in the living room. At least it would be pushing the heat back to the floor as it circulated up the walls and across the ceiling. Or maybe I could have a small ceiling fan installed at the top of the first stairway...

Anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?

Home Dec Sewing

Back in the day, I used to do a lot of clothes sewing and home dec sewing. Now that I quilt, it is just about all that I want to do.

I needed pillows for the wicker chairs on my front porch so I decided to make slipcovers for a couple of old pillows that I wasn't using any longer. I found the absolute perfect fabric at Joann's. It has several shades of red and yellow and somewhere in the mix, the exact color that matches my house siding AND the exact color that matches the trim are found.

From Front Porch

(Doesn't my wicker chair look sad? I need to get some spray paint!)

I looked at a couple of pillow cover tutorials but none had the crisp edging all around the pillow that I was looking for so I kind of "winged" it. Since I really like how they look, I am going to make covers for several pillows on my couch that need a little freshening.

A give away at The Restyled Home!

There is a lovely give away over at The Restyled Home. Linda is giving away copies of this book and Homestore gift cards!



The author - Matthew Mead


OOOhhhh - eye candy!



Matthew's book looks wonderful! Even if you don't win a copy, you can purchase it at lots of book stores all over the US. Here's a link to his website: http://www.entertainingsimple.com/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&book_id=2&Itemid=1

Check out Linda's blog and see about getting yourself a book or a gift card!